


Because the hour for which we've hungered is so near

by deathbyspaceglam



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Finn as a Moses allegory, Gen, Jewish Character, POV Original Character, Prince Finn, Stormtrooper Rebellion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2019-02-14 02:42:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12998073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathbyspaceglam/pseuds/deathbyspaceglam
Summary: A defecting Stormtrooper reconnects to the culture she was born into.





	Because the hour for which we've hungered is so near

**Author's Note:**

> Draws inspiration from AstriferousSprite’s works, including [A New and Brighter Birth](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12721323).  
> Written for Ktavnukkah day 1, with the prompt _wonder_.  
>  Title from “Zog nit keyn mol” because it was stuck in my head the whole time I was writing this, and because it fits thematically. Ah, research tangents...

A lot had happened in the past several years.

 _Who would have thought,_ she wondered, staring at her hands, _that just a few years ago I was wearing First Order armor?_

\---

Several years before, she hadn’t even had a name. HV-5608 was all anyone had ever called her. Working the First Order base, training for combat, and saluting officers had been the only life she’d ever known. Yet even as good of a soldier as she’d been, always complying with every order, a part of her had always wondered if there was more to life than this. What would it have been like to grow up on another planet? To work different jobs, eat different food?

She’d mentioned it to her bunkmate one evening. “There can’t be,” she’d replied. “The First Order is the whole world.” That had been all she’d said before lights out. HV-5608 hadn’t mentioned it again. But still, she’d wondered.

The First Order officially had no religion. Even still, through their education, some stormtroopers had learned of the concept and cobbled together a form of prayer on a base of forbidden questions. _Whatever driving force or higher power exists,_ HV-5608 frequently thought in the dead of night, staring at the bunk above her, _if there is some greater life waiting for me, give me a sign tomorrow or next year._

Never could she have imagined that her prayers would be answered.

There was an assembly scheduled that day. Every Trooper present was to gather in one of the lower bays of the Star Destroyer they were stationed on half an hour before the General’s speech. This was nothing unusual. Though her knees ached from standing for so long, she was glad for the opportunity to have whispered conversations with her friends.

That day’s assembly, however, was somewhat different than usual. An officer who had entered the bay didn’t immediately leave, but instead seemed to be… taking the podium?

“Do you think there’s been a delay?” one of her friends whispered.

“Who knows?” she whispered back.

“Soldiers!” yelled the officer. They stood at attention. “You were raised to do one thing: follow orders. Obey. Listen. Do whatever they tell you, no matter how you feel or what you think. Do it, they tell you. Kill that old man, burn down that village. It’s all for the greater good.”

 _Kill that old man? Burn down that village?_ She had never been in combat. She couldn’t possibly imagine herself doing those things. Who was this guy and what was he doing here? He didn’t sound anything like any other First Order officer. She listened with rapt attention.

“...as soon as you start showing doubt--if you dare to question the questionable--they won’t ask you to change, they’ll _make_ you do it.”

_Is that what would have happened if I’d asked someone else?_

“I’m sure you all know of one particular trooper who broke away and _how_ he did it--disobeying orders, escaping with a prisoner, and an _enemy_ of all things.”

She remembered hearing rumors about someone like that. FN-2187? What had happened to him, anyway? There were rumors, but HV-5608 was sure everyone was either making things up or exaggerating. ...weren’t they?

“But I can proudly say that those are all bogus. 87 didn’t die, wasn’t brainwashed; he managed to rediscover his personhood once more, to escape, to defect on his own terms. In fact, he is standing before you at this moment, willingly fighting for the bogeyman he was warned about.”

A collective gasp could be heard. _What?_ She looked around at her friends. Were they seeing this? FN-2187, a name dragged through the mud, alive and fighting against the First Order? Troopers could be seen clapping hands against their helmeted mouths, their hearts. HV-5608 raised her head. If this was really 87, and what he was saying was true…

“Tonight, the fate of the galaxy rests in each and every one of your hands. There is good in you, and together, we have the power to change _everything_. Who’s with me?”

Silence. Really?

She looked around. Surely there was someone who felt the same way as her… Alarm bells went off in her head. _Don’t do it! You’ll be reconditioned!_ But… 87 had done it, and there he was. _What should I do?_

The man at the podium ducked his head, preparing to leave disappointed. _No!_ Whatever she did, she could not let that happen. It couldn’t just fizzle out. Not after that. Not after that speech that had spoken to all her hidden prayers…

Slowly, she reached up her hands and placed them on either side of her helmet. The hiss broke the silence. As she lowered the helmet and lifted her head, she could see the other troopers turning to face her. Swallowing her fear, she dropped the helmet on the floor, looked directly into the eyes of the man at the podium, and raised her right fist in a salute.

For half a second, all was silent. Then, a hiss. And another. And yet another. Then the bay was filled with the hisses of helmets being removed, the thumps of them hitting the ground.

Since that day, she had stopped using her designation. 87 called himself Finn. Hava, she called herself, from the letters of her designation.

\---

Several years later, after the war had ended, Finn had gone to Verakhat on a diplomatic mission. While he was there, not only did he find out that he was the long-lost crown prince (?!?!), but that there had been a lot of other children from there who were kidnapped by the First Order at around the same time. Hava and the others had often wondered where they’d come from before the First Order, but such conversations had usually ended on a sad note of “I guess we’ll never know.” But what if a lot of them had, in fact, come from Verakhat?

War tore families apart. Everyone knew this. For that reason, the Resistance had encouraged genetic testing- you never knew if someone else there was your long-lost sibling or cousin. Now, as the nascent Republic struggled to put itself back together, it was time for families to reunite.

So they were tested. And many of them, Hava included, found that they were, in fact, from Verakhat. A culture they could reconnect to! They could even potentially find their families again! It was a lot to process.

They researched Verakhat’s culture. It was a delicate balance of old and new, ancient tradition and modernity. It used an ancient language in addition to Galactic Basic. The Force was prominent. It was a constitutional monarchy with a ruler and a senate.

They were all very impressed and wanted to visit there. Verakhat had just entered an alliance with the Republic, so this was easily arranged. Hava was almost giddy with excitement. After all those years of wondering about a greater life outside the First Order, now it was all being revealed!

When the ship touched down on Verakhat’s surface, several of the visitors broke into tears of joy. They pulled themselves together long enough to get through customs and settle into a hotel. Immediately afterwards, though, everyone wanted to go sightseeing. As the big group walked the streets of Ir Drisha, several of them could be seen wiping tears from their eyes. They explored markets, marveled at the architecture, and posed for many holo-photos.

In the evening, as they returned to the hotel, they noticed that the windows of every building they passed were adorned with lights. It was part of a Verakhi holiday, Hava remembered. People would light candles and place them in the windows as a reminder of a time in the planet’s history when it resisted an invading force, as a reminder that there was always light in the world. She pulled a flyer she’d taken earlier out of her pocket. It advertised a public candle lighting and celebration to be held in the city square that evening. “What do you think?” she asked the others. “Should we go?”

They all nodded.

It took some frantic searching to find the place, but they arrived to find people playing lively music and dancing in a circle. Noticing the arrival of Hava and the others, the dancers opened the circle and shouted for them to join in. They did so, linking arms.

As she danced, Hava thought of how the holiday celebrated resistance against an invading force. That was what the First Order had been, hadn’t it? It had invaded Verakhat and stolen its children, assimilating them into its army and keeping them away from their culture and families. This, she thought, was the ultimate act of resistance- she was taking back what they had taken away, refusing to stay assimilated. Celebrating her freedom.

**Author's Note:**

> Verakhat was inspired by a work AstriferousSprite hasn't published yet, I did not come up with it.  
> Edit: [It's been published now.](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12969450/chapters/29649306)  
> I wrote this while distracting myself from a research tangent I went on while researching for a final paper, how’s everyone else’s week


End file.
